The Last Line
by DrTaylor
Summary: Yeah, Buffy, What do we do now? Don't you wish she'd answered?


"Yeah, Buffy, what are we gonna do now?"

I'm not the one and only Chosen anymore… 

At first I tried to fight my calling. It used to tick Giles off all the time. I'd get all distracted-ish by whatever thing it was I was doing that week. I tried out for cheerleading, and I skipped training. I went to a frat party with a girl I hated just to have something normal to do. Something non-slayery.

But it followed me everywhere. When I went to the cheerleading tryouts, someone caught fire. When I went to the frat party, I was, as Giles put it, "very nearly devoured by a giant demon snake." There was never a lot of freedom in my life.

Still, I tried. Even though a Slayer is not supposed to have friends, not supposed to confide in anyone, I did. I had Willow. I had Xander.

And, amazingly, they never killed me in my sleep.

It must be hard for them. I know it was hard for me. It was hard to see them fight every day when it wasn't their fight. I tried to keep them out of it, once. But really, I was glad to have the company. And they kept me in touch with the world, once. We watched soap operas in Hindi, and we went to the Bronze every night. They went on patrols when I had to go, and when I could wiggle out of it we went to school events.

They were tied up in it too, after a while. Willow began dating a werewolf. Xander could only find dates that were evil. I was falling in love with a vampire. It's a wacky old world, especially when you live on a Hellmouth.

I love them. I always have. I love them so much that the first time I gave up my life, I did it for Willow.

I love them so much that when I killed Angel, I did it to save them. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't want the world to end either. But they are my world. They always were.

I went through a brief flirtation with trying to keep them out of it. But they wouldn't stand for that. I tried to keep Willow from being involved – I thought she'd leave town and that would be it. But she didn't. She stayed here, went to college here. Because she was part of this fight.

I thought I might be able to get Xander clear of it. But that never worked out either. And now…

It doesn't matter. He's alive. Unlike so many others.

Spike. Mom. Molly. Amanda. Annabelle. All the people I failed to save. How many bodies has Will found now? Twenty? More?

Even the evil ones – the ones I didn't help in time. I feel bad about Pete, and about Jonathan. Even Warren, a bit.

I invested seven years of my life in holding the line here. This was Sunnydale, the place I would not allow to be taken.

I was the Guardian of the Hellmouth. As it turns out, the last one. That Shadow Man was right. It ended here.

All those times I was alone. I died alone. Twice. All those times I wished for help. Well now I have it.

Think about it. Would a whole group of Slayers have even had a problem taking on the Master? No. How about stopping Angel from destroying the world? We would have had way more guards on Willow the first time she tried the spell. Hell, we would have had someone guarding the school. Just to be safe. Miss Calendar never would have died. The spell would have been done much sooner. Acathla would never have been an issue. The Mayor? No problem. If Faith hadn't gone all evil, she and I could have taken care of him, no sweat, a lot sooner than we did. Or at least without destroying the school. We could have killed Adam before that nasty business went down at the Initiative. We could have stormed Glory's tower and still had enough people left to beat her to a bloody pulp and I never would have died the second time. And if I hadn't died, I wouldn't have been brought back.

And the First couldn't have done this.

We could have stopped Warren before he fired that gun. We could have had enough manpower to find the Trio and stop them before it ever got to that point.

Or so I'd like to believe.

The only thing I can know, for sure, is that everything would be different now, if only I hadn't been alone all this time.

Seven years.

There is only one answer to Dawn's question. "We're gonna _live_."


End file.
